UAB's Cameron Moore and Shawn Taggart battle for possession of the ball. An alert pass from Taggart led to Mack's game-clinching 3-pointer.

Mark Weber/The Commercial Appeal

BIRMINGHAM -- With 12 minutes to go and a three-year run of domination over Conference USA perhaps ready to reach its conclusion at the hands of rival UAB, University of Memphis players gathered at the free-throw line inside a deafening Bartow Arena to call the next play, as they have done countless times this season

But junior Doneal Mack did not hear the call. Predictably, his next move was straight toward the bench.

"You can't make that play in a game like this," coach John Calipari would recall later. "What are you thinking? Where's your mind? Then I go back to him."

And boy, is Tiger Nation glad he did.

With star freshman Tyreke Evans struggling like never before Thursday, Mack made almost all the big plays for No. 5-ranked Memphis down the stretch, leading the Tigers to a tense 71-60 victory.

Mack scored 14 points in the second half, including the back-breaking 3-pointer with 2:36 left, to secure the Tigers' 55th straight C-USA victory, fourth consecutive league title and keep them on the path toward a possible No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

"I got mad because I wanted to win so bad, tears came to my eyes," Mack said. "Coach put me back in, and I just came out there aggressive."

It was a defining moment of toughness for Mack, who responded to his benching by burying a 3-pointer to put the Tigers (25-3, 13-0 C-USA) in front 48-46 with 9:38 remaining. Then, with the sold-out crowd of 9,153 roaring as UAB pulled to 54-53 on a 3-pointer by former Raleigh-Egypt star Lawrence Kinnard, Mack answered on a spinning layup with 4:40 remaining.

But his biggest shot of the game -- and perhaps of his career -- came with 2:36 to play. With Memphis' 60-55 lead still vulnerable, Mack took a kick-out from junior Shawn Taggart and swished a 3-pointer from opposite the Tigers' bench to effectively wrap up Memphis' 19th straight victory.

Senior Antonio Anderson followed with another 3-pointer from the same spot with 1:46 to go, wiping out the final hopes of a UAB team (19-9, 9-4) desperate to play its way into the NCAA Tournament.

"We always have somebody we can count on if anybody else is struggling," senior Robert Dozier said. "We don't hesitate to throw him the ball. Any guy who's open and getting his shots and has it going, we're going to get it to him. We're going to find a way."

And that was a good thing for the Tigers, who appeared to be in real trouble as the clock wound under six minutes to go, with the Blazers taking a 50-49 lead on a layup from Kinnard, who finished with 25 points.

But with 5:40 left, the Tigers got a five-point trip down the floor that started when Anderson spun from the right elbow and scored off the glass despite getting hammered by Channing Toney. Though Anderson missed the free throw, Dozier stuck back the rebound and also got fouled, burying the free throw for a 54-50 lead. Memphis finished 17-for-21 from the foul line.

Just like the way Memphis responded down the stretch of Saturday's victory at UTEP, it was a sequence that showed Calipari that his team is tough enough to make a deep run.

"The major thing for this team compared to any team I had was exactly that," Calipari said. "Were we going to be mentally and physically tough enough to compete at the highest level? I guess we're proving we are."

On so many occasions this season, the Tigers have relied on Evans to pull them through those tight spots, and he had delivered without exception during their 18-game winning streak heading into Birmingham.

But that version of Evans did not show up Thursday. He struggled literally from the opening tip -- his first pass of the game was thrown lazily across the middle and intercepted -- giving an ESPN2 audience a sneak preview of his game-long foibles.

By the end of the first half, which was tied at 28, Evans had six turnovers and just two points on 1-of-6 field goals. Indeed, the Tigers played much better with Evans on the bench. After starting 3-for-12 from the field, they roared back to open a 23-16 lead on Mack's 3-pointer with 5:32 left in the half. But when Evans came back out on the floor, UAB immediately came back on the scoreboard, taking a 26-25 lead just 3:17 later on Kinnard's 3-pointer.

Evans, however, wasn't the only star who struggled. UAB's leading scorer, Robert Vaden, went 0-for-6 in the first half and 0-for-11 in the second, including 0-for-12 from 3-point range.

Memphis made 14-of-25 field goals in the second half, silencing a UAB team whose pregame comments irked the Tigers.

"It feels good to win it here," Anderson said. "We let everybody talk. We don't get into the trash talking, never did. We just let them talk and let them talk and that puts all the pressure on them. We came out with a tough victory. It was close at half and we made our run."